Talking teaching with old friends...

These past few weeks I have been trying to decide which textbooks to adopt for the political science classes here at OCC. Being the only full-time political science faculty member makes the decision mine (unless my dean decides to choose for me, which he could, but that's a different issue.)

The Federal Government textbook will not change until Spring 2009 (that's when the new edition comes out and I can change books) so we are keeping the current book. I am not impressed with the current book, but I know how to teach with it, so two more semesters won't kill me (Summer & Fall.)

I was able to adopt a new International Relations textbook. It is written by Henry Nau who was the advisor to one of my colleagues at UCI during his MA program. The textbook I currently use for IR is more a "global issues" reader. I love teaching with it, but it lacks a lot of the political science structure that can be employed to really understand global issues. I am very excited about working with the new textbook and taking my IR class to a higher level of analysis.

When it came to the Introduction to Political Science textbook, I was frustrated. The book I was interested in had received some poor reviews from both faculty and students. Therefore, I turned to a textbook that one of the professors at UCI had authored and that I had used as a teaching assistant. I looked up two former UCI graduate students who had used the book in teaching their own class and that I had worked with and called them to get their take on the book. I was only able to get a hold of one. She teaches at a small college in San Diego and was just preparing to teach her own Intro class from that very book. We talked for about 15 minutes about teaching, the textbook and the busy life of new faculty. In the end I decided to adopt that textbook and we both agreed to keep in touch with syllabi and teaching strategies for working with that textbook. I am quite enthused to have a colleague with whom I can discuss teaching Political Science - even if she is on the other side of the country.

Just another affirmation that this is the career for me,
Brad